Second Day of a Commuter Sesshin (Zen Retreat)

A commuter sesshin, Zen retreat, is a strange and wondrous thing. Normatively one would all gather together and stay together. This coming and going thing makes it possible for us. So, all to the good. But, it does set things up a bit differently.

I am up in Seattle at the University Unitarian Church about to launch the second of our nine to nine all day sits, as we call it in Zen lingo, the days linked thematically, but as commuters, with a slightly different cast of characters each day.

I’m used to a somewhat tighter container. But, clearly, even our leaky vessel is helping carry folk across those troubled waters. Me, I know I’m finding the opportunity to sit longer a good thing. I am grateful. Endlessly so…

I note that on this day in history several things of moment on the religious front occurred. In 484 before our common era the temple of Castor and Pollux was dedicated in Rome. In the year 70 Titus and his Roman army breached the walls of Jerusalem. In 1834 the Spanish Inquisition was officially concluded, its work more than adequately done. And, in 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famous Divinity School Address, launching the great theological dispute within American Unitarianism we call Transcendentalism.

I find all these mysteries folding together within my intentions as we prepare to launch.

And, in minutes we resume the great silence.

So, blessings on all. Speak to you later.

And as the late Zen master Seung Sahn liked to caution folk, get enlightened quickly, and save the many beings!